News

RSPO lifts IOI suspension

9 Aug 2016

IOI Group has announced that it has received a letter from RSPO lifting the suspension of RSPO certifications for the entire IOI Group.

RSPO lifts IOI suspension

IOI Group has announced that it has received a letter from RSPO lifting the suspension of RSPO certifications for the entire IOI Group. RSPO said that it is satisfied that IOI Group has met the conditions set out in its letter to the company dated 14 March 2016, based on the actions that IOI Group has taken and implemented since then.

The initial suspension of IOI Group’s RSPO certificates became effective as of 1 April 2016. It followed a decision taken by the Complaints Panel (CP) on 14 March and endorsed by the RSPO Board of Governors on 25 March 2016 in relation to the complaint against PT Sukses Karya Sawit, PT Berkat Nabati Sawit, PT Bumi Sawit Sejahtera, all subsidiaries of the IOI Group.

The RSPO said it welcomes the good progress achieved so far towards the resolution of this case, as confirmed by both parties involved in a recent joint statement. However, the Board of Governors said it wished to make it clear that the implementation of the action plan by IOI shall be subject to an independent ground verification by a team of experts.

The CP will advise the Board of Governors to re-impose the suspension, with immediate effect, if the verification team find significant failures in the implementation of IOI’s commitments to RSPO, in correcting deficiencies that led to IOI’s certifications being suspended, in the first place.

IOI will, said the RSPO, continue to submit its quarterly progress report as mandated by the CP, in its letter of 5 May 2016. At the end of a 12 month period, the CP shall again commission an independent ground verification by a team of experts, following which a review of the complaint will be undertaken by the panel.

The panel shall then determine whether the implementation of the action plan is satisfactory and set any other conditions for the continued progress of the resolution of the complaint.